Tangerine Dream
The Hollywood Years Vol 1
It does make you wonder. OK, here’s a challenge for all you smd members. How many live albums have TD released, and how many soundtrack albums? I don’t know the answer, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at least a 2:1 ratio in favour of soundtracks. Yet TD have decided we want more soundtrack fayre. Perhaps we do? The sleevenotes themselves describe this as “leftover scores, songs and sequences”. They also point out that the song titles do not refer to the projects they were recorded for. Well, there’s 15 tracks to get through so for the purposes of brevity I thought I’d adopt the library CD approach:

‘Q-Time’ - busy sequencer work, bustling pace and a decent blend of themes

‘Cat and Snowman’ - orchestral, moody and drifting

‘Goldhunter’ - laid back optimism gives way to pulsing sequence lines

‘Law Paradiso’ - poignant piano led themes combine beautifully with reflective choral motifs

‘ La Petite Rue Noir’ - spacey, uncertain air

‘Propeller Beach’ - energetic, rhythmic and forthright

‘Autumn in Sonoma’ - stately and nostalgic

‘Chamber of Hope’ - classic sequences with a twist of melody

‘The Quiet Gambler’ - soothing yet enquiring

‘The Principle Source’ - uptempo and edgy

‘Labeo’ - busy sequencing with simplistic synth effects

‘Escape From Shadowland’ - robust and measured

‘Chronos Mile’ - silken themes with brass detail adorn sequential pulsations

‘JS Bach Sonata’ - classical parlour music

‘Fairfax’ - reflective with laid back assurety

When you list and describe the tracks like this it doesn’t appear to be that bad an album, and it’s fair to say that this is a well put together package both in terms of presentation and sound quality. With 15 tracks on show inevitably there are a few decent outings, check out ‘Chamber of Hope’ or ‘Law Paradiso’ for example - however at the end of it all I found that the lower depths of large beer caskets and the present tense of the verb “to scrape” were uppermost in my mind. (GG)

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